Tag: Williams News

For thousands of years, the Colorado River has carved its way through the Grand Canyon. While remarkable landscapes and breathtaking beauty are present, aesthetics are not as valuable as the knowledge available in the canyon.

Maya Caldwell, the director of student services at Williams Elementary Middle School (WEMS), wrote in an email that there a several opportunities for students to learn about the Grand Canyon. Among them are enriching field trips and park rangers coming to WEMS to host hands-on lessons about park education.

Sechrist Elementary now offers flexible seating in all its classrooms. But that doesn’t mean students are learning to touch their toes. It means young learners can now choose how – and where – they learn best.

Twelve-year-old Hannah Dodt’s confident recitations bookended this year’s Coconino County Spelling Bee Saturday morning at Coconino High School as she secured first place, matching the number that hung around her neck throughout the hour-long competition.

LAUNCH Flagstaff approached both the Flagstaff City Council and the Coconino County Board of Supervisors (Feb. 5) with one central message: the community needs more quality preschool options.

To advance world class education, which is LAUNCH’s stated mission, the organization is seeking supporters for a pilot program to improve preschool education within Flagstaff Unified School District boundaries by providing full-day, year-round preschool to 4-year-olds from low-income families.

To assist families with the registration process for the 2019-2020 school year, Flagstaff Unified School District elementary schools will be hosting Kindergarten Registration on February 6th from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at all district elementary schools.

Approximately $11,000 in annual funding for the Coconino County Public Health Services District’s oral health services for elementary school children, provided by the Arizona Department of Health Services, has been renewed through 2023. The Board of Supervisors approved the contract (Jan.22).

For the fourth year in a row, Arizona voters have ranked education the top issue facing the state of Arizona, according to an annual survey conducted by Expect More Arizona, a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan education advocacy group.

Among other state issues, such as immigration and border issues, taxes and healthcare, education earned the top ranking of the 600 statewide voters surveyed.

Flagstaff Unified School District had a year full of financial fluctuations to account for previously unmet needs, especially as the Red for Ed movement for improved teacher pay and school funding was in full swing throughout March and April. It also implemented various internal improvements for students.

Then raising and keeping pets, going hunting with his dad and realizing he was the only ‘90s kid whose bedroom walls were covered in posters of Jack Hanna, Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin, instead of Tony Hawk, Kelly Kapowski and The Ninja Turtles — Dave O’Connell was destined to work with animals.

Its 3:45 p.m. and the halls at Williams Elementary-Middle School are empty. The buses have departed with many students eager to head home. But down the middle school hall, near the back of the school, there is a buzz of activity.

About 40 students are spread between two classrooms — hunkered over computers, scribbling in notebooks and tinkering with Legos.

These students are part of new program at the school, the First Lego League, that teaches students the basics of robotics under the eye of coordinator and middle school math teacher Donya Hadder.